JUST under a year after breaking her back in a horrific crash in Germany, Serita Shone will make a welcome return to British bobsleigh training today at Bath University.

The Weymouth brake-woman will take to the dry, push-start track in Somerset for the first time since last October’s 70mph accident which doctors feared at one stage could leave her paralysed for life.

It takes a remarkable athlete to return from such a terrifying ordeal and Shone’s ambition has never wavered as she continues to look to make her mark for Team GB.

Speaking to Echosport, the 23-year-old said: “My recuperation has been going really well and everything is heading in the right direction.

“The next step is to now get back on the push-start track and then after that I will be looking to get back out on the ice.

“I am a bit nervous but today’s more of a learning step for me than a competition and I am more relieved and looking forward to it than anything else.

“Everyone uses the push-start track at Bath as part of their training and the fact I have been given the all clear to get out there again is just fantastic.”

A place on the British team for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi is already beyond Shone but she still sees her trip to Bath as a huge opportunity.

She added: “Although I have always been part of the team, it has been very different for me and I just want people to see me out there being part of it all.

“All I want is the chance to prove that I can still be an athlete – it’s what I want most.”

Despite undergoing two complex operations on her spine after the crash at the Winterberg Track back on October 26, 2011, Shone has made an astonishing recovery and is currently feeling no ill-effects after months of recuperation.

She added: “I can do all the training now that I was doing before but it is just a case of integration and taking it slowly.

“At the moment I am not suffering any specific back pain, which is good.

“I do get a bit stiff at times but that is just normal for any athlete, so long may it continue.”